On the board with my first deer of 09!

[jigglestick]

six sits into the season, without a deer sighting, I've been at this to long to be discouraged.
wanting to take a doe and break the ice for the season and wail on a deer of any kind with my new bear bow, I moved up to a forty acre wood of state property where I have hunted many times years before.
makes me think back to the first deer I ever hit with an arrow and never recovered on this very property.
that's a sucky feeling.
having had tons of practice this season, it was just a matter of getting in the right setup and waiting.
I parked on the road, off in the ditch, at the north side of the property.
walked in and found a nice open area that would/could allow up to a 35 yard shot in several directions.
choosing a solid straight aspen tree to ascend, I made it to 14 feet and realized I had forgotten my folding saw, so 14 feet it was.
I sat for about an hour when I heard a deer blow, what sounded to be off behind me.
at least they were here tonight I was thinking.
then I heard it again, but off in front of me. then I saw her coming from the right. not sure what she was blowing at, it wasn't me, I was down wind and motionless.
I stood up while she was behind some balsam trees and watched, but she wasn't taking her time.
at the clip she was coming in, I decided to judge her size quickly and then if she was a nice doe not a fawn, I'd take her given the opportunity.
I quickly recognized her as a mature doe and drew back.
I thought about zapping her in the first opening, but there were a couple ash saplings that kind of obstructing the shot. instead, I thought no, lets see if she'll step out into the next opening, and she did. I rested the pin behind her shoulder as she quartered toward me slightly, and let it rip.
10 yards and I watched as the luminok disapeared into her chest!
she raced out of there, I said my thanks and sat down, shaking from the adrenalin.
I texted my son who was hunting closer to home to bring some lights and a compass.
 
it didn't take long for Dan to show up and the tracking began.
I explained to him that I had hit her slightly high, and the arrow probably perforated the diaphram and exited out the far side belly area.
I did not hear her crash, but was confident she would be laying within a hundred yards.
 
we found blood and began tracking. the hundred yards came and went, then two hundred, then three hundred, then four.
we found some intestine at about a hundred and fifty, so I knew she'd be sick and looking to hole up so we proceded with caution.
at about 8:30, we had tracked her to the south side of the state forty and she crossed to the private land to the south.
I told Dan "as much as I want to find her tonight, I think we had better wait until day light".
we marked the area and moved out.
 
morning came and I was informed by my bride how upset that my youngest son Andrew was for not having been able to come help us track, so I asked him if he would mind helping us because the blood trail was thinning and we really could use some help finding this deer. he grinned a big grin and said "sure I would pop".
we found our marker, explained to Andrew what we had and what we were looking for.
picking up where we left off, she threw us for a few minutes. she had turned left off the trail. once we figured that out, we found a location where she had bedded for a few minutes and picked up again where she headed after that.
the trail was once again fairly easy to follow.
thirty five yards from where we had left off last night, she lay.
what a great feeling.
 
I'm on the board, the bear has it's first notch carved in it, and we have venison in the cooler!
now, lets get after mr. BIG!

[MNBucKKiller]

Congrats...I like the falling leaf in the picture :o)

[JohnWester]

nice job Dave.

[Backstrap]

Congrats to ya!

[deadeye]

Great job. Now that you got the first kill of the year, you can got after the big bucks.

[cannon man]

Congratulations, thats great.

[Outdoors Junkie]

Congrats Jiggle!

[Realtree]

Congrats Dave! 

[Stensethfan]

Good Goin!

[HD]

Dave is da man! 

Way to go! 

[HUNTER2]

Hey Jiggle, how come you didn't paint MNO on your forehead?

[jigglestick]

Hey Jiggle, how come you didn't paint MNO on your forehead?

I have it embroidered on the back side of my tighty whiteys, wanna see?
not sure why it didn't show up on the picture?